What Separates Successful People From Those With Regrets

Master this and everything else tends to fall into place.

At 16 years old, Australian Jack Bloomfield leads a bit of a double life. Much of his day is spent in class like a typical 11th grader. But in his spare time, as the CEO of Bloomfield Ventures, Bloomfield is busy running no fewer than half a dozen e-commerce businesses (e.g., Best Bargain), utilizing skills he's honed through side hustles, like trading and entrepreneurial experimentation (he started his first venture at age 12). With more than 13,000 Instagram followers and a solid international base of connections, Bloomfield is very clear about what's helped him get ahead.

Less cheap talk, more follow through

"In my opinion, the one main thing that has enabled me and others to succeed is our ability to block out the noise and execute. Many people have businesses ideas all the time, many of these ideas they dismiss. You would not believe the amount of billion-dollar ideas that I hear. So I ask the person telling me, 'So what have you done to execute?' Ninety-nine percent of the time the response is an excuse. Instead of figuring out how you can make it work, they spend that time figuring out why it won't. If the certain person does decide to execute on the idea, now comes the hardest part--blocking out the noise. In today's world, the amount of distractions [is] unlimited. When transforming an idea into reality, if you are committed, you need to devote yourself 100 percent. Nobody really understands how hard it is to start a business, so if your only giving 99 percent then it's not enough. Remove the distractions and devote yourself 100 percent until you see success. Nothing is going to happen without action and commitment."

The 3 execution keys: passion, value and optimization

Bloomfield emphasizes that real success takes patience, confidence, and practice. Things don't always work the first time, and you have to be able to learn from what happened instead of seeing yourself as a loser or failure. You can't lose sight of what you really love and believe in, even when naysayers come out in droves. You have to just do your homework, take the calculated risk and do.

"When I started my first business," Bloomfield explains, "nobody really believed that I could succeed. But if serving people through a product or service is something you are truly passionate about, then it doesn't matter what people think. If you are doing something truly inspiring to you, all the late nights and early mornings are worth it."

But following through and executing isn't just passion. It's also about understanding what your passion does for others--that is, you have to understand how what you care about is going to make their lives better, what you're giving. It's clarity of value that helps you define your action plan, because once you identify the value, you can ask yourself what specific, practical steps you have to take to deliver. As Bloomfield puts it, the amount of money you make is directly proportional to the amount of value you can bring to someone's life.

The last ingredient to successful execution? An unashamed willingness to rethink your use of time. To get real balance, you have to commit to optimizing every minute. This doesn't mean you can't relax. It just means you need to cut out fluff and move with purpose as much as you can.

"I know so many people who use the excuse 'I don't have enough time,' but that is rubbish. When I started my first business it was really hard to manage time, because I was spending a few hours on my phone or watching TV, when really all I had to do was [find] where I was wasting time, cut it out, and spend it on my business. This is something anyone can do. All it took was 10 minutes to identify where I was wasting time and fill it with productive activities that could actually bring me a monetary return on my time. If you really are passionate about what you are doing, then it really doesn't feel like work."

But perhaps most impressive of all is Bloomfield's overall outlook as his successes mount.

"I manage to stay humble and grounded, as I know [that] what I achieved up to today is only 1 percent of what I am going to achieve within my lifetime."

What would your life be like if that were your attitude? What would the world be like if, every time we looked in the mirror, we all acknowledged our accomplishments but knew we had so much more to give?